Biden Administration Pushes For Last-Minute Crackdown On Big Tech—Here's How Trump's Approach Could Differ

 

The Biden administration’s regulatory push against Big Tech has reached the eleventh-hour ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming term, targeting deals and mergers sought by high-profile companies as it wraps up four years of strict antitrust enforcement that could potentially be softened by the president-elect.

Key Facts

The Justice Department’s case against Google is one of the largest antitrust undertakings in the final days of Biden’s presidency, as the department reportedly plans to request that a judge force Google to sell its Chrome web browser to create a more competitive browser market (Chrome commands a 66.7% market share over other browsers like Safari, Edge and Firefox).

The case against Google, which was found to have illegally acted as a search monopoly, began under the first Trump administration, continued under Biden and is slated to wrap during Trump’s upcoming term, but it’s unclear what approach the next Trump administration will take.

The Biden administration is also placing pressure on Hewlett Packard’s $14 billion acquisition of networking technology firm Juniper, with company representatives meeting with regulators as recently as last week to convince the Justice Department to not challenge the deal in court, according to Bloomberg, which noted the companies might delay the deal until Trump’s term in hopes of less regulatory scrutiny.

The Federal Trade Commission is planning to probe Microsoft’s cloud computing business for potential anti-competitive practices, the Financial Times reported, with regulators specifically looking into accusations Microsoft is pushing harsh licensing terms to stop customers from transferring their data to competitor platforms.

The FTC has also set its targets on Amazon, recently suing the e-commerce giant over allegations it warped goods prices across other retail sites by deterring its sellers from discounting items and lowering prices (Amazon has argued its business practices create competition and that FTC interference would result in fewer products, higher prices and slower deliveries).

The FTC’s lawsuit against Amazon is one of several filed against the company this year, as Amazon has already settled lawsuits over its Alexa virtual assistant and Ring security camera devices, costing the company more than $30 million.

How Will The Trump Administration Handle Big Tech?

Trump’s administration, which levied crackdowns on Google and Facebook during his previous presidency, is expected to dial back antitrust pressure in his second term, the Associated Press reported, citing the anticipated departures of FTC Chair Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general for antitrust within the Justice Department. The two antitrust enforcement figures have proven strict during their time in office, contributing to the scuttling of several corporate deals worth billions of dollars. Tesla chief Elon Musk, who was named co-chair of the new Department of Government Efficiency and has given his opinion on Cabinet candidates directly to Trump, said in October that Khan would be “fired soon.” Some experts, however, also believe the transition to a new administration is not likely to stop existing antitrust cases from impacting Big Tech, the AP reported, but noted “everyone is betting” the Trump administration will be more receptive to mergers in the future.

Contra

Trump nominated Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Communications Commission. The Big Tech critic, who has served as an FCC commissioner since 2017, wrote a chapter in the controversial Project 2025 policy agenda that calls for the FCC to lessen the laws protecting tech companies from liability over content posted to their platforms. Carr has also expressed support for federal laws that would be similar to legislation in Texas and Florida, where penalties are made against social media companies for removing users based on their viewpoints.

Crucial Quote

"He is certainly in the position to control the DOJ's disposition of the remedies phase," former FTC Chair William Kovacic told Reuters, speaking of Trump’s ability to influence the outcome of Google’s antitrust case.

Key Background

The Biden administration has legally pressed tech’s biggest players since 2020, filing complaints against companies like Meta, Amazon, Apple and Binance that have resulted in costly settlements. In the year ended Sept. 30, 2022, the FTC brought 24 enforcement actions while the Justice Department’s antitrust division brought 26, Bloomberg reported, adding the total number of challenges marked the highest since 1976. The antitrust enforcement brought on by the agencies fell in line with commitments from Khan and Kanter at the start of their terms, with Khan vowing to beef up merger enforcement as she recommended a “hard look” at merger guidelines to “determine whether they are overly permissive.”